Automatic grain-shocker



6 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

Patented May-31,1921.

C. S. AGRE.

AUTOMATIC GRAIN SHOCKER. 7 APPLICATION FILED MAY.24. x920.

C. S. AGRE.

AUTOMATIC GRAlN SHDCKER. APPLICATION HLED MAY24-192b.

Patented May 31, 1921.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 2 "Patented May 31,1921.

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AUTOMATIC GRAIN SHOCKER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 24. I920.

C. S. AGRE.

AUTOMATIC (mm suookza. I APPLICATION FILED MAY 24. i920.

Ptented May31, 1921.

6 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

C. S. AGRE.

AUTOMATIC GRAIN SHOGKER. APPLlCATlbN FILED MAY 24. 1920.

Patented May 31, 1921 s SHEETS-SHEET 5.

Gnome/go UNITED STATES PATENT oFFIcE.

CARL S. AGRE, OF VOLGA, SOUTH DAKOTA.

AUTOMATIC GRAIN-SHOCKER.

Application filed May 24,

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL S. AGRE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Volga, in the county of Brookings and State of South Dakota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Grainshockers; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to an improved shock forming attachment for a harvester such as a grain binder and oneobject of the invention is to provide a grain shocker so constructed that it may be connected with a grain binder of an ordinary construction and mounted to receive the bundles, the weight of the bundles causing the attach ment to swing from a filling position to a dumping position when the device is re-' leased. Another object of the invention is to so mount the bundle holding cradle that it may be positioned in a relatively horizontal osition when filling and. swing to a relatively vertical position and further swing outwardly from the grain binder as it swings downwardly to the dumping po- 'sition. Another object of the invention is toso mount this cradle that it may have a horizontal turning movement as it swings downwardly and to provide means for guiding and controlling the swinging movement of the cradle.

Another object of the invention is to provide the cradle with improved shock compressing andholding jaws so mounted that they may move to a compressing position as the cradle swings downwardly to the dumping position.

Another object of the invention is to so mount these jaws that in addition to pro viding compressing means they may also provide means for ejecting the shock when the cradle is in the lower position.

Another object of the invention is to so construct the jaws that each may have a pivotal movement for ejecting the shock and one may have a movement transversely of the cradle toward the second jaw.

Another object of the invention is to so construct the cradle that the actuating means for the jaws may extend beneath the bottom or flooring of the cradle and only engage the ground when the cradle is in the lowered position.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Another object of the invention is to so construct the actuating means for the two jaws that one jaw may have movement toward the second while the cradle is swinging to-the lowered position and both jaws held agamst movement to an ejecting position until the cradle is in the dumping position.

Another object of the invention is to so construct and mount the actuating means for the two jaws that the pin which looks the jaws against pivotal movement while swinging downwardly may also constitute the means for engaging -the ground and moving the actuating means to turn the box for ejecting the shock from the cradle.

Another object ofthe invention is to provide an improved type of bracket for mounting the cradle to swing horizontally and vertically at the same time. Another object of the invention is to so mount the bearing bracket that it may move downwardly as it turns with the cradle swinging vertically shock forming attachment in top plan and j in a filling position.

Fig. 2 is a view in end elevation showing the device ina filling position.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view showing the device in th lowered position.

Fig. 4 is an end elevation showing the device in the lowered position.

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of the cradle when in the lowered position, portions be in broken away.

Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing the jaws swung to'an ejecting position.

Fig. 7 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 7-7 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 8 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 8--8 of Fig. 4.

This shock forming attachment is used in connection with a grain harvester which is indicated in general by the letter A and will have a conventional binder construction for cutting the grain and after tying the grain in bundles, deliver the bundles to a platform 1 from which they will be thrown by the delivering mechanism 2 across the fingers 3 which extend from the lower end of the platform 1. Ordinarily, the bundles drop upon the ground where they remain until gathered up and set into shocks and this takes a great deal'of time even when the bundles are held upon the platform until a number have been collected upon the platform and then delivered at one time upon the ground. In order to overcome this objection, the improved shock forming device has been provided for receiving the bundles from the platform 1 and delivering them in the form of a shock which will remain in a set up position upon the ground.

This device is connected with the side bar 4 of the grain binder and is provided with a supporting bar 5 which extends outwardly from the side bar 4 and is braced by the rod6. A frame 7 is connected with this arm 5 and extends longitudinally of the side bar 4 and carries bearings 8 in which the inner pivot arm 9 ofthe rocker lever 10 will be mounted. This rocker arm or lever 10 extends diagonally from the pivot arm 9 and has its free end portion bent to provide a stem 12 extending outwardly past the outer side of the frame 7 as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 3. The bearing 8 for one side of the pivot arm 9 is in the form of a strip 13. which extends downwardly from the frame 5 and is bent or off-set as shown in Fig. 2 and braced by the bracing rod 14 carried by the frame. This strip 13 has its lower end loosely connected with a rod or link 15 which extends longitudinally of the frame 7 and is loosely. connected with the lower end of a segmental rack 16. This rack 16 is mounted upon the stem 12 of the rocker arm 10 and extends upwardly through the frame 7 with its upper end carrying a pulley housing 17 in which is rotatably mounted a pulley wheel 18. j

The cradle or receptacle which receives the bundles is provided with a flooring 19 which will preferably be formed of sheet F 'metaland have its rear edge portion bent downwardly to provide a flange 20 through which the prongs 21 extend. A bracket 22 r is secured to this flooring 19 and is provided with a flange 23 which extends in spaced relation to the flooring and is provided with an open ended slot 24 for receiving a pin to be hereinafter referred to; Between the bracket 22 and the flange 20 the side por tions of the floorin have been provided with tongues which are rolled to provide sleeves 25 through which extend the'arms 26 of' the yoke 27 This yoke 27 is formed from a metal rod which is bent to extend about the flooring at the forward end side edges of the flooring and has its end portions bent to form stems 28 and 29 which extend upon opposite sides of the flooring. A segmental rack 30 which meshes with the rack 16 has its arm 31 rigidly connected with the stem 29 and therefore as the cradle swings downwardly the stem 29 will be rotated and the cradle swung horizontally with the stem 29 as a pivot pin.

In order to mount the cradle for vertical and horizontal swinging movement there has been provided a bearing bracket having an arcuate frame or body portion 32 carrying at its ends bearing sleeves 33 and 34, the sleeve 33 being loosely mounted upon the stem 29 and the sleeve 34 loosely mounted upon the stem 12 of the lever arm 10. Therefore, when the cradle swings downwardly, the bearing bracket rotates with a vertical swing upon the stem 12 and the stem 29 rotates in the sleeve 33 at right angles to the rotation of the sleeve 34, movement of the bracket and cradle being collected and guided bythe segmental rack 30 which meshes with the rack 16. A lever arm 35 extends radially from the stem 12 rigid with the sleeve 34 and is engaged by a spring 36 and chain or other flexible support 37, the spring having its second end connected with the bolt 51 and serving to yieldably retain the cradle in a raised position and the chain having its second end connected with the eye 52 and serving to suspend the rocker arm 10 and permit this arm to swing downwardly as the weight of the grain in the cradle causes the cradle to swing downv-iardly, thus rotating the bracket against the action of the spring and swinging the arm 35 upwardly from the position shown in Fig. 7 to that shown in Fig. 8. v e i In order to compress the bundles of grain in the cradle and deliver the shockfrom the cradle, there has been provided jaws which cons1stof standards 38 which carry the curved shock engaging fingers 39 and are provided with bearing sleeves 40. The bearing-40 of one aw is loosely mounted upon the stem 28 and the bearing of the second jaw is loosely mounted upon a stem 41 which extends upwardly from the arm 42 which arm extends radially from the sleeve 33 of the bearing bracket mounting the cradle. From a comparison of Figs. 2 and 3, it will be seen that as the cradle swings downwardly from the filling position to the dumping position and the stem 29 turns in the sleeve 33 the arm 42 will swing inwardly of the cradle across the flooring 19 and this will cause the jaw mounted upon the stem 41 to move toward the jaw mounted upon the stem 28. Therefore, the bundles of grain or any other material which may be in the cradle will be compressed into a com pact shockduring movement of the cradle to the lowered or dumping position.

After theicradle reaches the lowered or dumping position, the jaws are to be swung from the compressing position shown in Fig. 5 to the ejecting position shown in Fig. 6. In order to do so each sleeve 40 has been provided with a foot 43. The feet 43 are connected with the upturned end portions of the turning bars 44 which bars eX- tend beneath the flooring 19 and have their end portions extending in overlapping relation and provided with slots 45 through which extends a pin 46 thus slidably and pivotally retaining the bars in engagement with each other. One of' these bars carries a pin 47 which will extend into the open endedslot 24 of the bracket 22 and will hold the jaws against swinging movement upon the stems 28 and 41 to a discharging position. As the cradle swings'to a lowered position the pin moves to one side of the flooring and out of the slot through the open end thereof and then engages the ground. l/Vhen this pin engages the ground the lower ends of the arms 44 will be swung rearwardly of the machine and this will cause the standards of the jaws to be rotated and swing the jaws from the position shown in Fig. 5 to that shown in Fig. 6. The cradle will therefore be opened and the shock moved from a position resting upon the flooring to a positionwhere the shock will rest upon the fingers 21. i i I When this device is in use it is connected with the grain binder and a chain 48 which leads from a suitable locking treadle mounted in a convenient place upon the binder, carried over the pulley wheel 18 and conne'cted with the yoke 27 as shown clearly in Figs. 2 and 4. The cradle will be held in the raised or filling position until the treadle is moved to release the chain and permit the cradle to swing downwardly and after the .cradle has been emptiedy this' treadle and chain will serve as means for assisting re turn of the cradle'to a raised or filling position. The bundles 'of'grain will pass down the platform 1 and across the finger 3 into the cradle through the space between the com )ressin 'aws as shown in Fi 2. As t3 P) soon as *thecradle has been filled with a sufficient'quantity of bundles thechain 48 will be released and the weight of the grain will overcome the action of the-spring 36 thus causing the cradle to swing downwardly. The segmental racks permit the cradle to swing downwardly in a verticaldirection and at the same time will cause the treadle to turn horizontally and thereby cause the cradle to swing from the relatively horizontal filling position of Figs. 1 and 2 to the relatively vertical dumping position of Figs.

X 3 and 4. As the cradle swings downwardly,

bundles in the cradle will be compressed and as soon as the in 47 e1'1 'a es the round the jaws will be turned to the ejecting position I thus'opening the cradle andcausing the shock to be moved rearwardlyof the machine into engagement with-the ground. After the shock has left thecradle and is left upon the ground, the treadle or latch: lever which is connected with the chain 48 will be moved to draw upon the chain and the cradle will be swung to the filling position by the spring 36 where it will engage thestop 50 and can be releasably held until again filled. As soon as the pin 47 moves out of engagement with the ground during return of the cradle, the spring 49 will swing the jaws to the closed position with the pin 47 at the entrance to the slot 24 and the pin will then enter the slot as the cradle continues its upward movement to the filling position and the jaws return to their orignal position. Since it only takes a very short time to swing the cradle to a lowered position, empty it and return it to'a filling position, the harvester will not tend'to deliver bundles of grain before the cradle has returned to the receiving position. Even if the cradle did not return to the. receiving position in time to receive a bundle'formed while the shock is being placed upon the ground there would only be a comparatively few shocks which would-be dropped upon the field and these could be very easily and quickly picked up and placed upon a formed shock. It will thus be seen that there has been provided a grain shocking attachment fora binder which is so constructed that it will be very 'efiicient in operation and easy and simple to operate and, furtherg-so constructed that it can be readily associated I claim: 4 j l l. A shock forming attachment for a'har vester comprising a support, a cradle, means connecting the cradle withthe support for swinging movement from a filling position to a dumping position, and compressing jaws, one jaw being connected with the cradle mounting meansand moving toward the second jaw to gradually compress a shock during the entire movement of the cradle to a dumping position.

-with a conventional construction of binder.

- 2. A shock forming attachment for a harpivot stem, a cradle, including a pivot stem positioned at right angles to the pivot stem ofthe support, a bearing bracket including sleeves rotatably mounted upon the stems, and means for guiding swinging movement Y of the bracket and cradle as the cradle moves to a filling and a dumping position.

with the support and cradle,

- to the cradle at right angles to the swing of the bracket as the cradle moves from a V filling position to a dumping position.

5. The structure of claim 4 having the guiding means comprising an arcuate rack carried by the support, and a second arcuate rack carried by the cradle and positioned at right angles to and meshing with the first rack.

the stationary rack to 6. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a cradle, a bearing bracket carried by the support and mounting the cradle for vertical and horizontal swinging movement, a jaw carried by the cradle, an arm extending from the bracket, and a jaw carried by the arm, the

second jaw moving toward the first jaw as the cradle swings downwardly.

7. The structure of claim 1 having the jaws pivotally mounted, and provided with actuating arms extending across the cradle and slidably connected, one arm having a ground engaging pin for moving the arms and imparting movement to thejaws. V 8. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a cradle, means connecting the cradle with the support for vertical swinging movement from a receiving to a dumping position, the cradle swinging horizontally as it swings downwardly to a dumping position, and resilient means yieldably holding thecradle against movement toward a dumping position, weight of material in the cradle causing the cradle to move to a dumping position against the action of the resilient means.

9. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a bearing bracket pivotally connected with the support, a cradle pivotally carried by the bracket and having movement at an angle to the swing of the bracket, andmeans for turning the cradle in its bearing as the bracket and cradle swin downwardly.

10. The structure of (ilaim 9 having the turning means comprising a stationary arouate rack carried by the support and an arcuate rack carried by the cradle and engaging uide vertical swing of the cradle and turn t e cradle in its bearing for horizontal swing as it moves vertically.

11. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a segmental rack connected with the support for vertical movement, a stem extending from said rack, a bearing bracket pivotally mounted u on the stem, a lever extending from the bracket, a line engaging the lever to control downward movement of the rack, a spring engaging the lever to yieldably resist swing of the bracket, a cradle journaled in the bracket, and a segmental rack carried by the cradle and engaging the first rack.

12. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a pivotally mounted bearing bracket, having an outstanding arm, a cradle journaled in the bearing bracket for pivotal movement, a jaw pivotally connected with the cradle, a compressing jaw pivotally connected with the arm of said bracket, turning arms for said jaws having their ends slidably connected,

a pin extending from one arm and means for engaging the pin to control movement of the 13. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a cradle, and means for connecting the cradle with the support for vertical swinging movement, the cradle turning horizontally for movement at right angles to its vertical movement as it swings vertically from a filling to a dumping position.

14. The structure of claim 13 including pivotally mounted jaws, one jaw being bodily movable toward and away from the second during entire movement of the cradle from a filling position to a dumping position.

15. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a rocker arm pivotally vconnected with the, support and including a pivot pin extension, a segmental rack loosely mounted upon said pivot pin, a link connected with the support and rack, a bearing bracket loose upon the pin and having a lever arm extending radially of the pivot pin, a flexible connection between the support and lever, means engaging the arm to yieldably retain the bracket against movement, a cradle having a stem 'ournaled in the bearing bracket, a second arm extending from the bracket, a jaw pivotally connected with the cradle, a jaw pivotally connected with the second arm, and actuating arms extending from the jaws and slidably connected, one arm having a ground engaging pin. 7

16. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a support, a cradle connected with the support for swinging bodily from afilling to a dumping position, and means for gradually compressing material in the cradle as the cradle moves to a dumping position actuated by movement of the cradle.

when in a dumping position.

18. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a receptacle having movable walls constituting common means for compressing materialin and partially ejectin material from the receptacle.

19. g shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a receptacle, a bracket mounting the receptacle for vertical swinging movement having loose connection with the receptacle, and means for turning the receptacle in the bracket and simultaneously imparting horizontal swinging movement to the receptacle as the receptacle swings downwardly.

20. A shock forming attachment for a harvester, including a cradle having a flooring, pivot pins extending upwardly upon opposite sides of the flooring, tatably mounted upon said pins, a aw carried by one sleeve, an arm extending from the second sleeve, a jaw carried by said arm, arms connected with the jaws and carried downwardly and extending beneath the flooring and slidably connected, one lever arm having a ground engaging element for engaging the ground and imparting movement to the jaws.

21. A shock forming attachment for a sleeves roharvester comprising a support, a receptacle connected with the support for movement from an elevated filling position to a lowered dumping position, shock compress-. ing and ejecting means having an actuating element receiving movement through engagement with the ground when ejecting material at right angles to its vertical swinging movement, and means engageable by the actuating element to control movement of the actuating element.

22. A shock forming attachment for a harvester comprising a supporting frame, a shock former movably connected with said frame and normally positioned above the ground, and dumping means having actuating means engageable With the ground when said shockformer is lowered and moved to a dumping position by engagement of the actuating means with the ground.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

CARL S. AGRE.

lVitnesses:

CHAS. E. LEE, EDWARD LEE. 

